Bolsover Street Phase 1 & 2, London

This seven storey building is a joint venture scheme led by developer Ridgeford with Manhattan Loft Corporation. It comprises several floors for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) NHS Trust, as well high-quality residential accommodation and office space.

The development is a public-private partnership with the RNOH to house its central London Assessment Centre, which occupies the lower ground, ground and first floor. The Assessment Centre offers modern healthcare facilities, including imaging (X-ray and ultrasound), orthotics, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, pre-operative assessment and plaster.

Residential accommodation is provided through the rest of the building in the form of 70 apartments – four of which are luxury penthouses, 30 affordable housing flats for Genesis housing group and 3,229ft2 of office space. Phase Two works provided a further 60 apartments, 44 of which were for sale on the open market, the remainder being affordable housing.

Sisk was awarded a prestigious Gold Considerate Constructors Award for the scheme. The hospital carries out complex orthopaedic procedures for children and cancer sufferers and remained open throughout the works. This called for an extremely sensitive approach to construction. The site was highly commended for the attention to detail and excellent neighbour relations throughout the project. Initiatives included regular attendance at monthly community liaison meetings and coordinated planning with the hospital to manage and mitigate the impact of a major build programme on continuing clinical operations; including the facility for hospital staff to request a ‘time-out’ if building works needed to stop to facilitate hospital procedures.

Testimonials

From the very start, the team from John Sisk & Son has taken on board the requirement for strong communication with the clinical and project staff of the RNOH.The project staff were well briefed on the activities. This has resulted in high levels of understanding and good planning and consequently minimal disruption. The Sisk team agreed the implementation of an immediate, fixed period time-out that could be authorised if impact was felt to be detrimental to patient care, this has been used only once in 20 months.

Stephanie Williamson, Healthcare Planner and Project Manager, RNOH

Their proactive stance on value engineering and buildability assisted the second stage process significantly. Professional, proactive and non-confrontational they display not only a ‘can do’ attitude but also a ‘must do’ attitude. They are rapidly becoming our contractor of choice.